(It’s the end of the year, and just as we did in 2009, 2010 and 2011, Soundcheck is counting down the year’s top local music stories as determined by your humble Soundcheck editor. We’ll be counting down two each day through New Year’s Eve.)

(It’s the end of the year, and just as we did in 2009, 2010 and 2011, Soundcheck is counting down the year’s top local music stories as determined by your humble Soundcheck editor. We’ll be counting down two each day through New Year’s Eve.)

It started when the Cleveland rapper known as MGK played a sold-out show at the State Theatre in January. Afterward, he was arrested after being in a bar brawl at the Bishop Tavern; eventually he was sued for his alleged role in the fight.

But did that slow him down? Not even close. MGK stole the show at Wild Splash in March, performing with Waka Flocka Flame and DMX, surfing into the crowd and climbing to the top of the scaffolding. In June, he returned for the final, apocalyptic show at the Stadium Green Iguana’s Hawaiian Village, where he damn near incited a riot, attempting to smash out windows of the closed hotel with a giant metal grate.

In July, he was one of the featured performers at the Vans Warped Tour at Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg, and in October, he tried to top himself yet again at Wild 94.1’s Last Damn Show — he smashed a glass vase onstage, wandered through the crowd without security, then jumped on the hood of a new, $30,000 Scion FR-S, denting the roof, which he later autographed: “One Small Step for Kells, One Giant Leap For My Wallet. I F---ed Up! MGK.”

Five local shows, all at increasingly larger venues, all of them headline-worthy. Now that’s how you make an impression.